124 stories by "Isaac Butler"
Government bailouts saved the automotive and banking industries. American theater is in similar trouble and deserves to be saved.
Editor's note: Sara Holdren, New York and Vulture's regular theater critic, is on vacation.Like its narrator, a character simply called "Woman" played with great precision by Carey…
Editor's note: Sara Holdren, New York and Vulture's regular theater critic, is on vacation."I am not what I am." This almost-koan, spoken by Iago, comes a mere 64 lines into Othello. More th…
"By the way, did you see the video of Trump's hair in the wind?"In acting training, teachers refer to a performer's body and voice as an instrument, but in the case of Nathan Lane, what you'…
By Isaac Butler Now that I've seen it, I'd like to briefly talk about a couple of aspects of Sam Gold's recent, much-lauded production of Othello at New York Theatre Workshop and how it will…
NYC Fringe Contract: WARNING! The Guild has reviewed this year's contract for the NYC Fringe Festival and believes it is problematic, as are the Festival's application requirements. Playwrig…
If, like me, you work in theater and spend a lot of time procrastinating on social media, you've probably seen many of your friends ranting about small minded academic quislings fact-checkin…
By Isaac Butler Over at American Theatre magazine, Susan Jonas has a great piece about expanding the theatrical canon to include overlooked works by women that is well worth your time. I am,…
by Isaac Butler Let's never write about David Foster Wallace again. Let's never read anything about David Foster Wallace again. Let's instead read things actually written by David Foster Wal…
By Isaac Butler You know, it's amazing, the racket that war promoters have discovered and built for themselves over the last fifteen years. Really, it's astounding. First, you can get paid t…
By Isaac Butler "There are some of the younger geniuses-- everybody who has done one successful production on Broadway is a genius-- who are aware of the rewards that a conscious attitu…
by Isaac Butler This week, the good folks over at TCG asked me to respond to some interview questions as part of a roundtable about the future of theater. I'm very proud of the results, whic…
Two important pieces of news coming out of the LA 99-seat scene that are relevant to the often heated and ugly debate over reforming the Equity contract there. First off, let's take a look a…
By Isaac Butler Equity has alerted its membership that they are changing the 99-Seat Plan. Well, really, they're eliminating it, but the changes are not quite as drastic as the original prop…
By Isaac Butler AEA took the rhetorical gloves off today, explaining why it was offensive to use civil rights era imagery as part of a protest against the union and giving people a refresher…
By Isaac Butler Since my last post on this issue, folks have been pushing back about my use of gross income instead of net income for judging theater size. I initially thought my explanation…
By Isaac Butler (For my non-theater readers, this post is gonna get into the weeds on a union contract issue in California. This might not be the post for you.) Last week, my old friend and …
by Isaac Butler Over at The Atlantic, Adrian Hong would like us to know that The Interview, the recently canceled film starring Seth Rogan and James Franco about a hapless talk show host and…
By Isaac Butler Theatre is the slowest of art forms. When Doubleday published Mark Haddon's The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, it was, if not quite the vanguard of a trend, c…
Marianne Combs has a great roundup of people who her readers think should be considered for the Guthrie AD job. There's some good folks on there, but I think they're missing a couple. So her…
by Isaac Butler There are no words.
by Isaac Butler Today, the theatrically-minded zones of the internet are all abuzz about Jonathan Mandell's HowlRound piece, "Is Diversity a Codeword for Exclusion?" The piece is in three pa…
By Isaac Butler Laura Miller's incisive bit of close reading of the work of Jennifer Weiner reminds me that I always meant to write about "likable characters," back when there was …
by Isaac Butler Patrick Healy, in the Times: The $12 million Broadway revival of "Annie" closed last month as a critical disappointment and commercial failure. But it turns out that the musi…
By Isaac Butler Hey folks... just wanted to let you know that an essay I wrote about August Wilson's 20th Century Cycle appears in this month's American Theatre and can be read online. I've …
